The Greek pharmaceutical industry has reached its limits due to a number of “unreasonable” burdens imposed by the government during the crisis, Greek pharma chief Olympios Papadimitriou told EURACTIV.com in an interview. The sustainability of pharma companies is at stake, threatening 86,000 jobs, he said.

A number of member states want the European Commission’s competences in health and pharma policy to be upgraded in order to face more effectively the rising challenges in the field, Greek health minister Andreas Ksanthos told EURACTIV.com in an interview.

Austria’s EU Presidency will focus on “strong” investment in digital health as well as on regulatory issues when it comes to access to medicines, Dr Clemens Martin Auer told EURACTIV.com in an interview. Dr Clemens Martin Auer is the president of the...

The next European Commission should focus on the bloc’s role in the global context of innovation, as China is “decisive” about creating a reliable framework for intellectual property and connecting biotech start-ups and digital companies, EFPIA’s President Stefan Oschmann told EURACTIV.com in an interview.

The adoption of an outcome-based approach regarding the remuneration of medicines should take into account the entire chain, including the distributors, René Jenny, President of the European Healthcare Distribution Association (GIRP), told EURACTIV.com.

Experts are asking for a more collaborative approach in EU healthcare and greater involvement of the European Commission in order to face rising challenges and put patients at the core of decision-making.

The Novartis scandal in Greece exists and the people responsible for it should be dealt with quickly in order to avoid a “social eruption”, Greek business leader Konstantinos Michalos told EURACTIV.com in an interview.

The Greek parliament decided on 21 February to establish a special committee that will investigate the role of politicians in the alleged Novartis scandal, a case that analysts claim will shake up the country’s political system.

The Greek Union of Judges and Prosecutors called for “calmness and sobriety” on Friday (16 February), following a lawsuit by former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras against Premier Alexis Tsipras and Prosecutor of Corruption Eleni Touloupaki over the Novartis scandal.

A probe into illegal practices of Swiss drugmaker Novartis in Greece, involving thousands of state officials and doctors, has opened the Pandora’s Box in Greek politics as local media have named ten former bigwigs from opposition parties as being targeted by the investigation.

Slovenia joined the “Valletta Declaration”, an alliance of southern EU member states, which aims to explore strategies to jointly negotiate prices with the pharma industry, as well as Croatia with an observer status.

The European Union should not create an environment more favourable to generics compared to the innovative pharmaceuticals, as it risks weakening Europe’s overall global strength in pharmaceuticals and in research, Professor Adrian Towse told EURACTIV.com in an interview.

Following a Greek government request, the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) will discuss on Friday (8 December) a recent dispute between Athens and ROCHE, a Swiss multinational company, over the latter’s decision to withdraw a cancer drug from the market.

Following a clash with the Greek government over its decision to withdraw a cancer drug from the market, ROCHE, a Swiss multinational company, ultimately decided to make the drug available to patients for free.

A multinational pharmaceutical company has decided to withdraw an innovative oncology medicine from the Greek market, claiming that its price has fallen more than 50% because of the government’s regulatory interventions in the pharma area, EURACTIV.com has learnt.

Several pharmaceutical companies in Greece have threatened to stop supplying the market with innovative drugs and said they could even withdraw existing drugs as a result of an obligatory “discount” imposed by the Greek government and applied retroactively.

Accessibility of medicines is a sensitive issue that must not be examined in isolation. Policymakers, academics, business and patients must be part of the discussion as well as “innovation” because access would not get the focus it needs without it, according to Dorli Kahr-Gottlieb.

The harmonisation of different regulatory environments in the EU member states will help generic drugs enter the market, resulting in reduced prices for medicine and better patient access, Jacek Glinka told EURACTIV.com in an interview.